Knife attack highlights lack of protection, respect: cab industry

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This article was published 13/01/2022 (1366 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg cab driver Fitsum Ghebrehet was just trying to be courteous when he went to pick up the Central Park fare on Christmas Eve.

Now he has 15 stitches in his thigh. Ghebrehet was assaulted; slashed on the hand and leg with a big knife.

Such violence against cabbies is not an isolated incident, representatives from Winnipeg’s taxi industry told the Free Press.

In fact, Duffy’s Taxi and Unicity Taxi managers, board members, operators and executives said, unprovoked assaults on drivers and fare evasions have increased substantially amid the the COVID-19 pandemic, though they did not have hard data to provide.

There’s at least one incident every day in Unicity’s cabs, company president Gurmail Mangat said Thursday.

The local industry representatives said they want to see better protections and more respect for drivers in the sometimes maligned industry that provides a vital, front-line service.

The group also want fare evaders fined under the City of Winnipeg vehicle for hire bylaw, and for assaults against drivers to be considered similarly by courts to assaults on other public transit operators.

“We want the city to treat us as fair as any other citizen, protect our drivers… address the public. We’re good guys, we’re there to provide a service when there’s no other services there,” said Rajwant Brar, Duffy’s board president.

In a 2015 Canadian Criminal Code amendment, courts were told to consider the fact that the victim of an assault is a public transit operator to be an aggravating circumstance during sentencing. That amendment included licensed cabbies.

“We don’t deserve these kinds of things… But I’d like the public to know we’re there for them, we are there to give them a ride,” Ghebrehet said. “People are working for their family, for food, to survive. We are the same as (any) other (worker).”

Ghebrehet, who has driven for Duffy’s for five years, said he pulled up to an apartment block on the 400 block of Kennedy Street at about 8:20 p.m. Dec. 24, when three men left the building. They said their goodbyes, and as one went to get into Ghebrehet’s cab, his hat fell onto the street, the 48-year-old driver said.

“I told him, ‘Sir, sir, sir, your hat… you dropped your hat.’ Then he said to me ‘You’re very annoying,’” Ghebrehet said. “He starts swearing at me.”

The driver closed his side window, but the man threw a cup at the glass, shattering it. That’s when a “very big knife” came out, Ghebrehet said, slashing the driver before the suspect fled.

He called police, as did onlookers. They arrived within minutes.

“(A police officer) said, ‘We’re going to try to save your life.’ He gave me first aid,” Ghebrehet said. “He tied my thigh to stop the blood, then the ambulance came.”

He was taken to hospital in stable condition, treated and released hours later.

The husband and father of three children is still healing and hasn’t been able to drive since, though the cab company has been supporting him.

“From now on, I’m going to be scared,” Ghebrehet said, noting he thinks he will go back to driving a taxi once his wounds are healed.

Winnipeg police confirmed officers responded to the assault, arresting a suspect around 9 p.m. Christmas Eve near Qu’Appelle Avenue and Balmoral Street.

A 24-year-old man from Winnipeg is charged with assault causing bodily harm and mischief under $5,000/obstruct in enjoyment, a Winnipeg Police Service spokeswoman wrote in an email. The accused was released on an undertaking, as mandated by the Criminal Code.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca